In the “rapid prototyping” lecture of the degree program Digital Healthcare at the St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences, students faced a unique task: after just a brief introduction to voice design and speech assistants, their assignment was to create and publish an Alexa skill or Google Assistant Action.
The topic was free to choose and up to the creativity of the students. Their creation had to pass the manual skill certification process performed by Amazon. This means that they didn’t have to just develop the skill, but also provide all required metadata like description and icons.
As a development tool for prototyping, we decided to use Voiceflow. It proved to be easy to use and extremely quick to achieve results already in our Alexa for Wellbeing Online Challenge.
Top Alexa Skills by the Students
In total, 14 skills have been developed and published by 14 students. Here, I’d like to highlight a few of the skills that I found especially interesting. Most of these are available in German only.
Cat Quiz
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Cat Quiz Alexa skill by Theresia Schauerhofer Answer questions about the history or behavior of cats and learn a little something about our animal friends.
Upright Posture – Made Easy
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Upright Posture – Made Easy Alexa skill by Irene Weis Physiotherapie You know you should straighten up. But do you find it difficult to implement this in your everyday life? Increase your well-being by straightening up more often. This skill helps you to incorporate straightening into your everyday life. To do this, you use simple, beautiful pictures that you imagine. The skill was developed by an experienced physiotherapist. It’s very short, just try it out.
“Aufrechte Haltung – Leicht Gemacht” at the Alexa Skills website (German)
Orthoptics Quiz
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Orthoptics Quiz Alexa skill by Helena Wagner This short quiz contains questions about orthoptics and is intended to give laypeople a brief insight into this topic.
Eye Muscle Functions
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Eye Muscle Functions Alexa skill by Anna-Maria Windhofer This quiz is primarily intended to support prospective orthoptists and ophthalmologists as part of their training in learning the functions of the eye muscles. This knowledge test is also very suitable for refreshing the eye muscle functions.
“Augenmuskelfunktionen” at the Alexa Skills website (German)
Exercise Buddy
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Exercise Buddy Alexa skill by IPM Exercise Buddy helps you to work. Your current capabilities will be assessed first. Afterwards different tasks with matching repetitions are suggested.
My Smart BMI Calculator
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My Smart BMI Calculator Alexa skill by Höllebrand Judith You will be asked for your weight in kilograms and your height in centimeters. The BMI is then calculated and the corresponding BMI category according to the WHO is given to you.
“Mein smarter BMI Rechner” at the Alexa Skills website (German)
Coffee Quiz Austria
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Coffee Quiz Austria Alexa skill by Königshofer Victoria For all those who easily lose track of coffee specialties in Austria. With this short quiz, test your knowledge about the preparation methods of Austrian coffee house classics.
“Kaffeequiz Österreich” at the Alexa Skills website (German)
Nukl Quiz
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Nukl Quiz Alexa skill by Johannes Ecker The game asks a few questions about nuclear medicine. The game covers the basics and is really fun.
Beer Knowledge Austria
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Beer Knowledge Alexa skill by Thomas Wolfinger I’ll explain briefly what beer knowledge Austria can do. Beer knowledge Austria enables you to learn interesting facts about the beer culture in Austria and to query this knowledge in the form of a quiz. Have fun!